Exposed to Passion Book Tour

Exposed to Passion

By Gemma Brocato

They walked through the shadows individually. Will they emerge into the light together?

Leading a vagabond life as a curator for a traveling photography exhibit translates to a lot of bad days for Rikki Salerno. But her trouble doubles when a careless high school student shoves her into a marsh. Being rescued by teacher Sam Kerrigan should have made things better, but Rikki’s inability to confess her true identity casts a shadow over their budding affair.

When Sam refuses an overly aggressive parent’s marriage proposal, she’s determined to ruin him. Not only does she doctor photos to make it look like Sam’s behaved inappropriately in front of students, she hacks the foundation website to reveal Rikki’s true identity. Faster than the blink of a shutter, Rikki’s focus changes from pursuing her full-color future to the black and white necessity of clearing Sam’s name.

Sam’s attention wandered yet again off the homework papers he was supposed to be correcting. The universal law of gravitation wasn’t nearly as riveting as the memory of Rikki Salerno wearing a purple jacket and tight running shorts in the early morning sunlight. He’d resisted the urge to wrap her in his arms when he’d run up on her in the park that morning. A fiery halo had lit her hair, glints of red winking in her messy ponytail. The sight of her when she turned back toward town and ran ahead of him! He’d have been happy to follow her for all twenty-six miles of a marathon. But, his need to talk to her overruled his desire to watch her spectacular behind, so he’d quickened his pace to catch her.

Rikki had tensed when he’d started ranting about Marguerite Sims. Without knowing how, he’d made her angry again. He didn’t understand it, but she seemed defensive when he’d made disparaging remarks about her boss. He was going to have to watch his comments about the pampered princess when he was around Rikki.

And, if wishes did come true, there would be a whole lot of around Rikki time. Her image in his mind’s eye—exotic, interesting, and intriguing, all wrapped up in one sexy package…. He fidgeted in his hard teacher’s chair, suddenly uncomfortable with the tightness of his khakis. Thank God, there weren’t any students in the room. That’d be a hell of a thing to explain to a bunch of horny teens.

Words I Try Not to Say

By Gemma Brocato

Thank you so much for inviting me to your blog today. I’m excited to share a little bit about myself, and my new release, Exposed To Passion, Book #3 in the Five Senses Series.

As an author, I have a fairly decent vocabulary. I could probably compete with Sheldon Cooper and Leonard Hofstadter in a big word contest (can’t always spell them, but I usually know what they mean). I could probably beat Penny using only my little words. But, like every other person on the planet, there are a couple of words I shy away from using. It doesn’t always work and sometimes, the scene or character or the situation calls for the use of a particular word. I don’t like to do it, but I’ll occasionally let lose with something that would cause my mom to wash my mouth out with soap if she caught me saying it. In no particular order:

Let’s just begin by saying Friend is my favorite F word, except when I drive. Unfortunately, I use this word with too much frequency (and I’m not talking about friend).

Shut Up – Did anyone else’s parent tell them not to say shut up then turn around at some point when you got older and tell you to shut up? Growing up my siblings and I might have been known to have this kind of dialog:

Brother 1: Shut up!

Brother 2: Make me!

Brother 1: I don’t make trash, I burn it.

Mom: Both of you just shut up!

Anyone else have that kind of conversation?

When I first started writing, I used the word that a lot. I mean, like maybe 4,000 times in one manuscript. An agent pointed it out and asked if that was due a speech pattern common in the region of the country I’m from. Don’t know about that, but I used it more than normal. Now, before I send anything off to my editor, I do a locate and destroy search in the manuscript to eliminate as many of the offending words as possible. Same thing for so, but, was and Holy Cow! My critique partners say that hands and fingers are becoming sin words for me. Going to have watch that! (See what I mean about that?)

My editor tells me I like angry words a little too much. Roiled, seethed, torqued, fumed. Sometimes, you just have to use a word like this. I’ve been trying to avoid overuse. The thesaurus has become my closest ally in my quest to avoid certain words.

What word or words do you overuse?

Gemma’s favorite desk accessories for many years were a circular wooden token, better known as a ’round tuit,’ and a slip of paper from a fortune cookie proclaiming her a lover of words; some day she’d write a book. All it took was a transfer to the United Kingdom, the lovely English springtime, and a huge dose of homesickness to write her first novel. Once it was completed and sent off with a kiss, even the rejections addressed to ‘Dear Author’ were gratifying.

After returning to America, she spent a number of years as a copywriter, dedicating her skills to making insurance and the agents who sell them sound sexy. Eventually, her full-time job as a writer interfered with her desire to be a writer full-time and she left the world of financial products behind to pursue an avocation as a romance author.